A businessman from Nalla Sopara was allegedly kidnapped in Delhi by a man who befriended him on Facebook and forced him to call his wife for a Rs. 10-lakh ransom.
According to the police, Chirag Joshi (28), a resident of Sai Ram Apartments in Nalla Sopara (West), runs a plastic manufacturing unit in Vasai. He was in search of a supplier of plastic grains (granules).
On Facebook, he befriended a man identified as ‘Jain’ from Delhi, who offered Mr. Joshi cheap plastic granules and sent sample shots on WhatsApp.
He then invited Mr. Joshi to visit Delhi to strike a deal. Mr. Joshi left for Delhi on July 13, and Mr. Jain arrived at the airport to pick him up. After nearly a two-hour drive, Mr. Jain told Mr. Joshi that he was being taken to his factory.
“Mr. Joshi suspected something fishy about the business talks and his worst fears came true when Mr. Jain told him that he had been kidnapped. If he wanted to be freed, he had to cough up Rs. 10 lakh,” said inspector Nilesh Mainkar of Nalla Sopara police station.
Mr. Joshi telephoned his wife Vaishali and told her that two truckloads of plastic pellets were ready and asked her to arrange Rs. 10 lakh for payment. But Ms. Vaishali felt something amiss and approached the police.
“After Ms. Vaishali narrated the story on July 13 night, we tracked the mobile tower location of Mr. Joshi, which indicated that he was in Mewat district of Haryana,” said Mr. Mainkar.
However, Ms. Vaishali refused to register a complaint as she feared for Mr. Joshi’s life. “But I contacted Sharda Raut, Superintendent of Police, Palghar, and briefed her about the case. Ms. Raut contacted her counterpart Kuldip Singh, Superintendent of Police, Mewat, who agreed to cooperate in rescuing Mr. Joshi. But we needed an official complaint from Ms. Vaishali, who was unrelenting,” said Mr. Mainkar.
On July 14, the kidnapper telephoned Ms. Vaishali demanding Rs. 5 lakh in cash to be given to a man at Malad station in return for Mr. Joshi’s safety. This time, she agreed to lodge a complaint, and a case of kidnapping for ransom was registered against Mr. Jain. “We dispatched two policemen in civilian clothes and asked Mr. Joshi’s brother to bring the cash. But the abductor did not turn up at the railhead where we had set up the trap,” said Mr. Mainkar.
Finally, the Haryana Police succeeded in rescuing Mr. Joshi. The Nalla Sopara police have dispatched a team to Haryana to bring him back. “We will get to know the details after Mr. Joshi’s return,” said the official, refusing to comment on whether the abductor has been arrested.
